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AKP2 way for Liberty!" — he cried ; 
Made way for Liberty, and died. 

— James Moittgonwry. 




GETTYSBURG. 



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AH ! never shall the land forget 
Mow gushed the life-blood of her brave, 
Gashed, Harm with hope and courage yet, 
Upon the soil they fought to save. 

— William Cttllen Rrvant. 



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CONTENTS. 



The Story of the Battle, ...... Apple ton. 

The National Cemetery, - - - Samuel P. Bates. 

Soldier, rest ! — Walter Scott 

Address, - - - - - - - - Abraham Lincoln, 

The American Flag, . . . Joseph Bodfnan Drake, 



o Harrisburg. 
o Carlisle.* 



o Chambersburg. 

o Gettysburg. 

o Hagerstown. 
o Williamsport. 



o Shepherdstown. 

o Frederick City. 



o Harpers Ferry. Baltimore, o 



o Edwards Ferry. 



o Washington. 
* About 90 miles north 0/ Washington. 



THE STORY OF THE BATTLE. 



IN June, 1863, the army of Northern Virginia, divided 
into three corps under Longstreet, Ewell and A. P. 
Hill, commanded by Gen. Lee, crossed the Potomac at 
Williamsport and Shepherdstown and marched into 
Pennsylvania ; a part going as far as Carlisle, the 
remainder halting at Chambersburg. The Union 
army, under Gen. Hooker, had in the meantime 
crossed the river at Edwards Ferry and headed 
towards Frederick City, Md. On the 27th inst., 
Hooker, having been i^efused the use of some ten 
thousand men then not needed at Harpers Ferry, 
tendered his resignation, which was accepted, — 
Gen. Meade succeeding to the command. The 
position was such that Meade could, by a rapid 
march, throw his whole force on Lee's rear, isolating 
him in a hostile country and cutting off his sources 
of supply. Lee perceiving that his movement north- 
ward could be carried no further until the army men- 
acing his rear was routed, resolved to concentrate his 
whole force in the neighborhood of Gettysburg. The 
Union army, at that time spread over a space of 
thirty-five miles, was likewise concentrated to await 
an attack. 

On the morning of July I, Hill, whose corps was in 

the advance, learned that Gettysburg, from which he 

was distant about six miles, was occupied 

Wednesday, by a Union force. Sending back to urge 

yuly I. Longstreet to hasten his march, he 

moved on. Li the meanwhile Reynolds, 

who was in command of that portion of the Union army, 

had sent out a cavalry reconnoissance in the direction 

whence Hill was coming, and the foices came into 



4 The Story of the Battle. 

collision about two miles north-west of Gettysburg. 
Reynolds sent infantry to the support of his cavahy, 
and the action opened. He was killed in the begin- 
ning of the fight. At first the Union forces were super- 
ior, and they gained decided advantages ; but in a few 
hours nearly the whole of Hill's corps came up from 
Chambersburg, and Ewell'sfrom Carlisle, both number- 
ing about 50,000, while their opponents were less than 
half as manj^ The Union forces were driven l)ack 
through Gettysburg. Until the town was reached 
the retirement was comparatively deliberate and 
orderly ; but when arrived there, being huddled in 
the narrow streets, subjected to a rapid fire from bat- 
teries which raked them, and the enemy's swarming 
infantry intent on their destruction or capture, the 
men fell into confusion. Their officers strove to save 
them by ordering them into the cross alleys. But this 
only added to the confusion, the men either not under- 
standing the commands, or hoping to escape the fire 
of the foe, and over 1,200 were made prisoners in less 
than twenty minutes. The remainder took up a strong 
position on Cemetery hill, just south of the town, close 
to the village cemetery from which the hill and ridge 
were named. 

Before the fighting began Reynolds noticed the 
great advantage this hill pi^esented, and designated 
it as the position on which to hold his reserves, 
and as a rallying point in case he was forced back from 
the more advanced position in front of the town. 
One division was left here commanded by Gen, Von 
Steinwher, under whose direction the heaviest guns 
were planted on the very summit nearest the town. 
Around each gun he erected runettes of such height 
and thickness as to defy the most powerful bolts the 
enemy could throw against them. 









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Battlefield, Wednesday, J'tly t- 



6 The Story of the Battle. 

During the night most of the Union troops that had 
as yet not been engaged arrived on the field ; the 
centre of the line of the Second corps passing through 
the cemetery where the soldiers who had lought 
throu^rh the day were sleeping amid the graves. 
Early'' in the morning the bulk of the two armies 
was in position, that of the Union being posted on 
Cemetery ridge from Round lop to 
Thursday, Gulp's hill. Including the cavalry upon 
^uly 2 the two flanks the line was over five miles 
lon<r The Confederates were just opposite 
on Seminary rid'ge with their left bent round through 
the town to the foot of Culp's hil ; the length of 
their line being more than seven miles. 1 he lorces 
present, or near at hand, were about equal ; each 
numbering from 70,000 to 80,000 infantry and artilleiy. 
Meade had intended that his line should be posted on 
the rid<Te directly between Round Top and Cemetery 
hill But this ndge, in the centre where Sickles was 
placed, is comparatively low, sinking down into a 
valley a few hundred yards wide, beyond which rises 
another wooded crest running diagonally to the lormer, 
and Sickles supposed this to be the one which he was 
to occupy. When the error was discovered there was 
no time to correct it, and Meade decided to support 
him in his present position, although it left an unocu- 
pied space between him and Round Top. As it 
happened. Hood's division of Longstreefs corps struck 
this opening. Moreover, by some mischance i^ittle 
Round Top had been left unoccupied, and this was 
the key to the entire Union position, for if the enemy 
could seize this and place a few guns upon it, the 
v^hole line would be enfiladed. The Confederates 
perceived this, and began to swarm up its rugged 
sides But, just in time, Warren, who as engineer 



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Battlejield, Thursday, July 2. 



8 The Story of the Battle. 

was examining tlie line, discovered the error and 
brought up a few regiments. They reached the summit 
a moment ahead of the enemy, and drove them back. 
Again and again, until night fall, this assault was 
unsuccessfully renewed. In the meantime the re- 
mainder of Longslreel's corps was pressing fiercely 
upon Sickles, who was soon borne from the field with 
his leg shattered. His corps made a stubborn resist- 
ance, but was forced back until it reached the ground 
he should have occupied, where a new line was formed. 
The Confederates charged this, but were met with a 
fire from which they recoiled. Hancock, who now 
commanded the centre, ordered a counter-charge, by 
which the enemy were compelled to retreat to the ridge 
previously occupied by Sickles, which they continued 
to hold. The withdrawal of troops from Gulp's hill, to 
sup]5ort Sickles and Hancock, enabled Ewell to get 
wiihin the Union entrenchments at that point. 

Soon after daybreak Ewell was forced from the 
foothold he had gained the previous day. The re- 
mainder of the morning was spent in preparation. 
Seminary ridge formed an admirable posi- 
Friday, tion for the Confederate artillery, and here, 
Jttly 3. directly in front of the Union line they 
planted 150 guns. A great part of Cemetery 
ridge is so rugged that artillery could not be placed 
there ; so that although Meade had 200 guns, he 
could use but 80 at a time. 

At about one o'clock the enemy, having perfected 
all his plans, made the attack. Silence, for more than 
two hours, had reigned, when, of a sudden, 150 guns 
were run to the front. For an instant the air was 
filled with a hissing, bursting, fiery cloud, and a tor- 
rent descended on its death-dealing mission upon the 
long lines of living crouched below. The Union guns 



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Battlefield, Friday, July 3, 



lO The Story of the Battle. 

made fitting reply. Notwithstanding every precaution 
had been taken to shelter the Union troops, the 
destruction was terrible. Men were torn limb from 
limb, and blown to atoms. In the neighborhood of 
Meade's headquarters the shells were exploding at 
the rate of two in a second, often six in a second. 
After two hours the Chief of the Union artillery gradu- 
ally suspended fire " to see what the enemy were going 
to do." Lee, supposing that the Union Ijatteries had 
been silenced and that the infantry were demoralized, 
ordered the grand attack of the day. The attacking 
column, exclusive of a brigade that did not fairly ad- 
vance, numbered about eighteen thousand men, the 
most of whom were Virginia veterans who had as yet 
not been engaged. Lee had intended to advance his 
artillery to support his infantry, but found at the last 
moment that his ammunition was nearly exhausted 
and there was no time to replenish it. The column 
moved swiftly down the slope and across the plain ; 
all the Union batteries opened upon them, plough- 
ing great furrows through theirlines which were closed 
up as fast as made ; still they pressed on until one 
brigade was within three hundred yards of Hancock's 
line, which had reserved its fire. \\\ five minutes the 
whole brigade was streaming back in wild disorder. 

The other division marched on until it reached 
Gibbon's front line, thinly posted behind a low stone 
wall ; they charged straight over this among the 
Federal batteries, and for a quarter of an hour there 
was a struggle with pistols and clubbed muskets. Con- 
federate flags waved upon the wall within the Union 
line. The Union troops hurried from all sides and drove 
them back down the slope which was completely cov- 
ered by musketry and artillery ; to advance, retreat or 
stand still was alike impossible ; the men flung them- 



The Story of the Battle. ii 

selves on the ground holding up their hands in token of 
surrender. In the few moments during which the 
contest lasted, by far the greater part of that gallant 
division had disappeared. Four thousand five hundred 
of them were prisoners, many more were wounded, and 
a vast number were dead. 

During the night Lee concentrated his force behind 
the crest of Seminary ridge, probably expecting an 
attack. In the morning Meade called a council of 
war at which it was decided to " remain a day and 
await the development of the ememy's plan." Before 
night a heavy storm had set in, under cover of which 
Lee began his retreat toward the Potomac, leaving a 
strong rear guard to defend the passes through the 
mountains. The train was seventeen miles long when 
drawn out on the road, and from every wagon issued 
wails of agony. Very few of the wounded had re- 
ceived adequate surgical aid, many had been with- 
out food for thirty-six hours, and they were going 
rapidly in wagons without springs, through a moun- 
tainous country. He reached the river, 40 miles distant, 
on the 7th, the stream, which he had crossed almost dry- 
shod a fortnight before, was now swollen by unusually 
heavy rains, and unfordable. A bridge which he had 
flung across had been destroyed by a cavalry dash from 
Harpers Ferry, and he had no alternative but to in- 
trench himself and await an attack or the falling of the 
waters. Meade advanced slowly by a much longer 
route, and on the 12th came in front of the Confederate 
intrenchments. He called a council of war, which, 
against his opinion, voted to postpone the attack until 
reconnoissances had been made. On the evening of 
the 13th an order was issued for an advance the next 
morning, but when day broke the enemy had disap- 
peared, A slight bridge had been constructed and the 



12 The Story of the Battle. 

river had fallen so as to be fordaLle at a single point. 
Two corps crossed by the bridge the other by the 
ford. The stream was still at high tide, and the men 
found much difficulty in stemming it ; but they linked 
arms, and thus interlaced and steadied, forded the 
river in mass, nearly shoulder deep, with the loss of 
but three men. 

The Union loss was 2,834 hilled, 13,713 wounded, 
and 6,643 missing. The best estimates put the Con- 
federate loss at 5,000 killed, 23,000 wounded and 8,000 
unwounded prisoners. 

The work of interring 9,000 dead, and removing to 
comfortable quarters and caring for 20,000 Avounded, 
was a herculean task. The Confederates had left the 
most of their unburied on the field as also a large 
number of their badly wounded. The number of 
surgeons was limited although increased by volun- 
teers from the North, and their task so great that 't is 
narrated in some instances the operators had to be 
supported while performing the operation, and fainted 
from exhaustion when finished. 

The men were buried everywhere, when convenient 
in clusters of ten, twenty, fifty or more ; but so great 
was the number and such the advanced state of de- 
composition of those that had been dead for several 
days, that they could not be removed, and were buried 
in slight ditches, in the fields or gardens, or by the 
roadside, just where they were found. Some fields 
contain hundreds of these graves, and in one, in the 
vicinity of Little Round Top, lie four hundred Con- 
federate soldiers. 

— From Appletotis Cyclopedia and Bates' 
History of the Battle of Gettysburg. 



THE NATIONAL CEMETERY. 



ACTING under the instruction of Gov. Curtin of 
Pennsylvania, a plot of seventeen acres of land, 
situated on Cemetery hill adjoining the village cemetery, 
the scene of some of the most terrific fighting, was 
purchased, the title of which was vested in the State 
of Pennsylvania in trust for all the States having dead 
buried there. In laying out the grounds a semi-circu- 
lar form was adopted, the head of each body pointing 
towards a common centre — the site of the monument. 
The work of disinterring and re-interring the Union 
dead was l)egun October 27, 1863, and completed in 
about five months. Many bodies then in unmarked 
graves were identified by means of papers, letters, 
photographs, etc., and marks found on their clothing. 
More than 3,000 graves of Confederate soldiers were 
examined in this search. The cemetery was dedicated 
Nov. 19, 1863, The oration was delivered by Edward 
Everett and an address by President Lincoln. 

States represented and the number of their dead : — 

Maine. ....... 104 Maryland 22 

New Hampshire 49 West Virginia... 11 

Vermont 61 Ohio 131 

Massachusetts . 158 Indiana 80 

Rhode Island. . 14 Illinois 6 

Connecticut ... 22 Michigan 175 

New York 867 Wisconsin.... 73 

New Jersey.. . . 78 Minnesota 56 

Pennsylvania. . 535 U. S. Regs. . . . 139 

Delaware 15 Unknown 979 

Total 3.575 



SOLDIER, REST! 



SOLDIER, rest ! thy warfare o'er, 
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking ; 
Dream of battled fields no more. 

Days of danger, nights of waking. 
In our isle's enchanted hall, 

Hands unseen thy couch are strewing, 
Fairy strains of music fall. 

Every sense in slumber dewing. 
Soldier, rest ! thy warfare o'er. 
Dream of fighting fields no more ; 
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, 
Morn of toil, nor night of waking. 

No rude sound shall reach thine ear, 

Armor's clang, or war-steed champing, 
Trump nor pibroch summon here 

Mustering clan, or squadron tramping. 
Yet the lark's shrill fife may come 

At the daybreak from the fallow. 
And the bittern sound his drum, 

Booming from the sedgy shallow. 
Ruder sounds shall none be near. 
Guards nor warders challenge here ; 
Here's no war-steed's neigh and champing. 
Shouting clans or squadrons stamping. 



ADDRESS. 



FOURSCORE and seven years ago, our fathers 
brought forth on this continent, a new nation, con- 
ceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that 
all men are ci-eated equal. Now, we are engaged in a 
great civil war testing whether that nation, or any 
nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 
We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We 
have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final 
resting-place for those, who here gave their lives that 
that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and 
proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, 
we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot 
hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, 
who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our 
poor power to add or detract. The world will little 
note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can 
never forget what they did here. It is for us the 
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished 
work which they who fought here have thus far, so 
nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedi- 
cated to the great task remaining before us, that from 
these honored dead, we take increased devotion to 
that cause for which they gave the last full measure 
of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these 
dead shall not have died in vain ; that this nation, 
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom ; and 
that government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people shall not perish from the earth. 



THE AMERICAN FLAG, 



Flag of the free heart's hope and home. 

By angel hands to valor given, 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues were born in heaven. 
Forever float that standard sheet ! 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet. 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us ! 



Kilbonrne 7 'of?ipkiiis, 

79 Ct'dar Strct-t, Xew York. 

Copyy'ii^hted 1878. 









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